pH Litmus Tracker: A Summary Report on Pakatan Harapan's Institutional and Political Reforms

Come May 9th, 2019, it would be one year since the Pakatan Harapan coalition won the 14thgeneral elections and formed a government. The historic election win witnessed the fall of theBarisan Nasional government – a government that had ruled the country for 61 years withimpunity since independence in 1957. Decades of Barisan Nasional rule had resulted inimmense corruption and abuse of power.

The Pakatan Harapan coalition was unequivocal in its commitment to upholding the goodgovernance agenda for Malaysia which is key to stamping out the country’s structuralcorruption and abuse of power. This commitment was inked on its election manifesto inparticular Promise 14. Promise 14 states that it would, among others, strengthen anti-corruptionefforts.

Having won the elections on the ticket of good governance, the Pakatan Harapan governmentproceeded to crystallize this particular agenda in two notable national policies – the Mid-TermReview of the 11th Malaysia Plan (Mid-Term Review) and the National Anti-Corruption Plan(NACP).

The Mid-Term Review was launched in October 2018. Pillar 1 of the Mid-Term Reviewincludes reforms in the area of governance. It aims at ensuring greater transparency andefficiency of the public service as one of the government’s new priorities and emphases for2018-2020.

The first of its kind, the NACP was launched in January this year and formulated in line withthe spirit of the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) to which Malaysiais a State party. This policy aims at achieving Malaysia’s vision of being a corrupt-free nationby the year 2023.

In moving its reform agenda forward, the new government proceeded to announce a numberof decisions that sought to address issues once buried by the previous Barisan Nasionaladministration, around structural corruption and abuse of power. Some of the decisions are:

1) The setting of up the Royal Commission of Inquiry to look into the allegations ofmisconduct by judges and interference in court judgments;2) The setting up of the Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate the existence ofhuman trafficking camps and mass graves in Wang Kelian;3) The reopening of the Teoh Beng Hock case;4) The reopening of the Scorpene corruption scandal, and the trial of Altantuya Shaaribu.

While we acknowledge that the decisions made in relation to these cases are critical to ensurejustice is served, we are however rather disappointed with the pace of the proposed reforms. Ithas almost been a year since the Pakatan Harapan coalition won the 14th general elections butdelays, U-turns and inaction in realizing these reforms appear commonplace. The governmenthad failed to formulate and provide a clear and concrete roadmap for the implementation of theproposed reforms which is necessary to ensure that it is moving in the right direction.